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It’s a real ambition of ours - I don’t want to promise something we can’t deliver

John McDonnell

During the election campaign, he said: “I don’t see why those that had the historical misfortune to be at university during the £9,000 period should be burdened excessively compared to those that went before or those that come after.

“I will deal with it.”

Jeremy Corbyn at Glastonbury

Mon, June 26, 2017

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn spoke to vast crowds from the Pyramid stage and the Left Field stage at the 2017 Glastonbury Festival

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the Greenpeace area at Glastonbury Festival

However his close comrade, Mr McDonnell, told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show today: “We will look at what we can do.

“We are going to try to, it’s a real ambition of ours - I don’t want to promise something we can’t deliver.”

Getty•BBC

John McDonnell said cutting student debt was an 'ambition' not a pledge

Presenter Andrew Marr said it sounded originally to be a promise, prompting the Labour MP to reply: "What Jeremy said is we recognise young people are coming out of college now with debts of £50,000 - they cannot even think about buying a house or get on the property ladder - so we've got to tackle that.

"But the issue is the system has got to be tackled anyway because it's falling apart."

BBC

Mr McDonnell admitted it would cost the taxpayer £100bn

Asked if a future Labour government would help students by dealing with some of their debt, Mr McDonnell replied: "We're going to try to. It's a real ambition of ours.

"I don't want to promise something we can't deliver."

He had been clarifying comments made by Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, the week before in which she said it was Labour’s “ambition” to write off all student debt.

She also said it was a “huge amount” and the party would not commit to doing so “unless we can afford to”.

Getty

Jeremy Corbyn said he wanted to swipe student debt as it was unfair

BBC

John McDonnell also told Andrew Marr he thought Grenfell Tower was "social murder"

The Conservative Party immediately hit out at Labour, saying Mr McDonnell’s admission was proof of a “promise broken”.

Gaining the student vote through promising to reduce tuition fees has been a common method in recent elections.